00:00The Metropolitan Police came under fire after the Father Ted and IT Crowd creator Graham Linnan
00:10was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Monday over three posts he made on X about trans issues.
00:19In his first statement after the controversy erupted, head of the force Sir Mark Rowley said
00:26while the decision to investigate and ultimately arrest the man was made within existing legislation
00:35which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence,
00:42he acknowledged the concern caused by such incidents given differing perspectives on the
00:50balance between free speech and the risks of inciting violence in the real world.
00:57Sir Mark added that his officers were in an impossible position when dealing with statements
01:05made online and should not be policing toxic culture wars and debates. In response to all of this,
01:14senior Tory Sir James Cleverley said the arrest looked like a real overreaction to what was,
01:22as he described, self-evidently a joke. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick described
01:28the incident as a complete waste of police time. However, the new Green Party leader,
01:35Zach Polanski, told the BBC the arrest seemed proportional.
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